The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee called on fired FBI Director James Comey to provide memos Wednesday detailing his interactions with President Trump to her panel.
In an interview with “PBS Newshour” anchor Judy Woodruff, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) also reiterated her demand that Comey testify before the Judiciary Committee. Comey has already agreed to go before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“He should provide those documents and make an appearance at Judiciary and explain them,” Feinstein said.
{mosads}Feinstein and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) last week requested FBI memos detailing Comey’s communications with Trump. The lawmakers also requested from the White House any records of conversations between the two men. Neither the FBI nor the White House turned over the requested material.
“They’re going to be turned over,” Feinstein said. “I think it’s just a question of time.”
But Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, cast doubt on whether Comey would provide the memos — or whether they even exist.
“He would not confirm where they are, what their presence — if there is a presence of these documents, he would not say a word about that,” Chaffetz said on CNN Wednesday. Chaffetz also said that the FBI had refused the Oversight Committee’s request for Comey’s memos.
The Comey memos have become a subject of intense interest for congressional investigators after news reports last week revealed that Comey had written in a memo that Trump had asked him in February to drop the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee are among four congressional panels investigating Russian election meddling and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. The FBI is conducting its own investigation into the matter.
Comey was charged with leading the FBI’s probe until he was abruptly fired by Trump earlier this month. The Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel last week to oversee the investigation.
Feinstein on Wednesday said that the scope of the ongoing Russia investigation is widening amid growing “investigative material.”